


I Think I Found Hell

by OceannanotOceania



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Character Death, F/M, FYRTFF Scarefest Challenge 2014, Mild Gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-04
Updated: 2014-10-04
Packaged: 2018-02-19 20:47:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2402333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OceannanotOceania/pseuds/OceannanotOceania
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael finds a strange tape when he goes to Waterloo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Think I Found Hell

**Author's Note:**

> Kind of based on the second prompt [here.](http://fuckyeahrtfanfic.tumblr.com/post/98963319831/) Written for FYRTFF's Scarefest Challenge.

Michael was stood in the Waterloo Records in down town Austin, a place he had only ventured to around the time he had first come to Austin. His hands brushed along each of the CDs along the racks, eyes flickering over each CD’s title and artist. He let out a breath.

Nothing seemed interesting to him.

Michael paused at the end of a CD rack, looking over to a basket filled to the brim with old tapes. A paper sign hung above the basket, the words _75-80% off All must go!_ scrawled in red ink. Michael walked over to the basket, promptly sifting through it. Most of the tapes in there were in cracked plastic cases, many of the cases containing crumbling labels, the names of each tape just barely visible.

Michael stopped when he got towards the bottom of the basket, grabbing a completely blank, black tape. The outside case was surprisingly immaculate, with only a few faint scratches on the clear side of the case. Michael turned the case over, even opening up the case to look at the actual tape, but still couldn’t find a label.

Weird.

Despite that, Michael shrugged, holding onto the blank tape as he walked up to the front desk of the store. The person at the register had one earbud in his ear, the music blaring loud enough that Michael could almost clearly hear it when he was standing a few feet away from the cashier. The cashier looked up from the phone he was typing something on, his eyes briefly widening before he shook his head, pulling out the earbud he had in.

“So-sorry,” The cashier shook his head again. “Guess I didn’t notice you.”

Michael raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, it’s fine.”

The cashier’s eyes flickered down to the tape in Michael’s hand. “Just the tape?”

Michael nodded, placing it on the table. The cashier turned the tape towards him, looking for a label that he promptly realized didn’t exist.

“I uh, I got it from the clearance basket in the back.” Michael said.

The cashier’s brow furrowed. “Right sorry, I’m gonna get my manager real quick.”

Michael’s hand came to rest on the blue counter in front of him, his fingers tapping an idle rhythm as he waited for the cashier. The cashier came back a few minutes later with a woman with a black earpiece on who was still in the middle of conversing with the cashier. The manager looked over to Michael.

“I’m sorry about this sir,” She said, her polite tone of voice tinged with some nervousness.

“It’s fine,” Michael looked over to the tape, which was currently in the manager’s hand as she scoured the case and tape to find a label.

The manager frowned. She placed the tape back on the counter. “You said you got this in the clearance bin, right?”

“Yeah,” Michael replied.

She nodded her head slowly. “Well, if that’s the case, just take this.”

Michael raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“If there’s no label, I won’t be able to find it in our catalog. But, since you got in the clearance bin, it’s not that big of a deal to me if you just take it for free.”

“Oh, thanks.”

She flashed a smile. “Are you gonna need a bag, sir?”

Michael shook his head. “No, I’ll just take it.” He held out his hand.

The manager placed the tape in Michael’s hand. “ We hope to see you again.”

“Have a nice day.” The cashier chimed in as Michael walked out of the store.

Michael gave a small wave when he got up to the front store before leaving.

Michael plopped into the driver’s seat, closing the door shut. He placed the tape in his lap as he put on his seat belt. His eyes flickered down to the tape in his lap. He lifted up the case, turning it in his hands as looked the case over again.

What the hell could be on this thing, anyways?

Michael shrugged, turning on the car. He took the tape out of its case, pausing before putting it into his car’s long unused tape player.

A faint scratch came out of the speaker, making Michael think of someone putting a needle down on a record player, before the music started.

Michael couldn't think of a way to describe what was playing, beyond saying it was something he'd never heard before. Strings were quietly playing something that didn't sound anything like what a normal orchestra would play. A faint drone could be heard underneath the strings, somehow keeping the beat for the strange sounds of the strings. Frankly, that was the best way to describe it: strange sounds.

But, despite that, Michael liked it. A lot.

There was no reason behind why he liked it; after all, it really was more like noise than anything else. But, there was some strange sort of appeal to the noises coming out of Michael's speakers.

Michael shook his head, looking up to see that he had already arrived at his apartment. His brow furrowed.

What...?

Michael pulled into a parking spot, and turned off his car. He looked over to the tape player, holding a hand out before he shook his head.

~

"I'm back from Waterloo." Michael called out.

He looked towards the kitchen, where Lindsay had looked up from the food she was arranging on the counter. She flashed a small smile before walking over to Michael. Lindsay put her hands on Michael’s waist, and Michael lightly placed his hands on Lindsay’s cheeks before pressing a light kiss to her lips, and kissing her cheek.

“You find anything good?” Lindsay asked, a small smile still on her face.

Michael shrugged. “Not really.”

\---

Michael isn’t sure exactly when it had started, but the song on the tape suddenly had vocals. At first, he had thought that there was some random scratch, or that the tape had wound itself up strange. In the end, he decided that he’d listened to the tape so often that he was probably noticing something that had been there already, but he just didn’t notice it before.

Of course, vocals wouldn’t exactly be the best word to describe it. The vocals were just the slightest bit louder than the drone that lay at the core of the song. The words sounded more like mumbles than anything, though. It was just quiet enough that Michael had to work hard to even hear that there were words in the first place. He could never understand the mumblings though; they sounded like a completely different language from English and well, any other language he’s heard of.

And, while Michael had brief occasions where he wondered if he should be more concerned about the strange appearance on his tape, the worry ultimately dissipated. It didn’t take long for Michael to become fully acclimated to the strange mumblings. Hell, he thought that the vocals made the strange song even better.

\---

Lindsay looked over to the tape player to her right, an eyebrow raised as she tried to listen to the tape’s song. She looked over to Michael.

“So, where exactly did you say you got this tape again?” Lindsay asked.

“I just found it on the ground somewhere.”

The question of why exactly he had decided to lie about something as petty as this briefly flashed through Michael’s mind.

Lindsay slowly nodded. “Ah, it’s, interesting.”

“You think so?”

“Ye-yeah.”

\---

Lindsay’s eyes briefly flickered away from the road in front of her as she looked over to Michael, her grip on the steering wheel tightening slightly. “Uh, babe?”

Michael shook his head, looking over to Lindsay. “Yeah?”

“Do you, do you have to play this every time you’re in the car?” Lindsay bit her lip as she looked towards the tape player, which, as per usual, was playing that tape he’d gotten over a month ago.

Michael frowned. “You don’t like it?”

“No, no, it’s not that,” Lindsay briefly looked back in front of her, making a slight adjustment to make sure she was in the middle of her lane. “It’s just, doesn’t it get a bit...annoying after a while?”

Michael raised an eyebrow. “No.”

“O-oh.” Lindsay looked back to the front. “Sorry.”

Michael frowned. “Alright, alright.”

Michael leaned over, stopping the tape player, and switching over to the radio. It switched to the default, which was playing some bullshit pop song. Michael shrugged before leaning back into his seat.

Lindsay’s grip on the wheel relaxed. “Thanks babe.”

Michael merely nodded.

\---

Michael furrowed his brow, briefly reaching over to turn up the volume of his speakers. The tape had started to turn staticky, obscuring the mumblings more than anything else in the tape’s song. Michael’s gaze flickered between the tape player and the road in front of him as he deliberated if the tape had finally started to wear out; he had used it almost constantly after he had first gotten it about two months ago.

The static cleared.

Michael’s eyes widened slightly as the tape’s song started to have actual words. Granted, they were quiet for a moment, almost reminiscent of the mumblings he had grown accustomed to. But then, he could make out the words.

 _Kill, kill, kill..._ The vocals of the song mumbled, though it was much louder than the vocals had ever been. _Kill, kill, kill..._

Michael grip on the wheel relaxed, his eyes flickering back to the road in front of him.

He needed to go home.

~

Michael slowly closed the door behind him, and glanced around the apartment. Lindsay looked towards the front door, away from the movie she was in the midst of watching.

“Oh, hey babe,” Lindsay said, a smile on her face. “Did you get what we needed from the store?”

Michael shook his head. “Ye-yeah.” He held up the small, white plastic bag he had in one hand. “I’ll, I’ll go start on dinner.”

Lindsay grinned. “Thanks.”

Michael nodded, walking straight over to the kitchen. He spread the few random items of food he’d gotten at the store on the counter, and went over to the cabinet. He grabbed a few items at random, trying to remember what exactly they were supposed to have for dinner tonight.

Michael aggressively shook his head when he heard a voice whisper in his ear.

_Kill, kill, kill..._

Yes, yes, soon. Soon.

Michael walked back to the food he had just bought, placing the random things he’d gotten from the cabinet onto the counter. Michael’s eyes flickered over to the knife block in front of him.

There were five knives currently in the block, the other two that were supposed to be in there currently dirty. Michael pulled out each knife, holding the handle with one hand while the other lightly felt along the blade as he turned the knife, watching how the steel glinted in the light. He repeated this process with the other clean knives. In the end, he ended up fixating on the last knife he’d grabbed. It was one of the smaller knives, but it had the sharpest blade.

Michael smirked.

Perfect.

Michael looked over to the living room, a small smile on his face. The sofa Lindsay was sat on was facing away from the kitchen, so she wouldn’t even notice him come over.

Michael spared one last glance at the food on the counter before walking over to the living room. He stood behind Lindsay as she continued to watch the movie, seemingly oblivious to Michael.

Michael placed the hand that wasn’t holding the knife on the back of the couch near Lindsay’s shoulder. He leaned over, his breath ghosting along the side of Lindsay’s ear. Lindsay twitched slightly, the movement ignored by Michael as he slit Lindsay’s throat.

Lindsay stiffened as she turned back to face Michael, her eyes wide. Blood oozed from the fresh wound on her throat, and a small amount of blood had started to pool in her mouth.

“Mi-Michael?” Lindsay coughed more than said.

She continued to cough after that, each cough spewing blood on the back of the couch and on the black shirt Michael was wearing. Lindsay’s hand shook as she brought up a hand to cover her mouth with, but still was unable to block much of the blood and spit that spewed out of her mouth. Michael merely stood there, a grin on his face as he watched Lindsay bleed out in front of him.

Lindsay fell over, her body ending up sprawled halfway off the couch. Michael slowly walked over to see Lindsay’s body, a smile still on his face.

Michael’s face fell, his eyes looking down to the bloodstained knife he held. He dropped the knife, his eyes looking back to his now deceased wife.

Michael fell to the floor, slowly crawling over to look at Lindsay, his hands brushing along Lindsay’s face, straining to hear if maybe, maybe, she was still breathing.

Michael backed away from Lindsay’s body and he slowly stood up, biting at his lip.

She was dead. She was really dead.

Michael could feel his hands shaking, his breath becoming ragged. He ran to the front door, throwing on the hoodie that was draped on a small cabinet beside the door, and grabbing his keys before he ran out of his apartment. Michael ran down the steps as fast as his feet could possibly, almost tripping on multiple occasions as he ran straight to his car.

He threw open the passenger door, reaching over to eject that tape from the player. He paused, his grip tight on the tape as he stared at the open door.

No. No, he couldn’t use this. They could, they could find him...

Michael shook his head, slamming the door shut, and dropping his keys right beside the car.

And then, Michael ran. He ran as fast as possible, as far as he thought his body could take him away from there. He wasn’t sure when it had happened, but he had thrown the tape to the ground, wanting to get that fucking _thing_ away from him.

~

Meg pulled up a few feet away from Michael and Lindsay’s apartment building. She looked over to Gavin, concern on her face.

“You sure you don’t want me to come up with you?” Meg asked.

Gavin nodded. “I probably won’t be up there for long.”

Meg bit at her lip, slowly nodding. “Alright.”

Gavin leaned over to peck Meg’s lips. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

Gavin got out of Meg’s car, slamming the door shut. He looked up to the apartment building, and let out a breath.

Both Michael and Lindsay hadn’t answered their texts in a few days, and Geoff was more than a little concerned about them both being gone without notice even though today was supposed to be a work day. In the end, Gavin took it upon himself to check on his boi and Lindsay.

Gavin slowly started to walk over to the apartment building, his gaze still fixated on the building. After a few steps, Gavin heard something crack under his foot.

Gavin jumped back, raising an eyebrow when he saw a tape of all things on the ground. He picked up the tape, his eyebrow still raised as he saw how it seemed to be perfectly intact even though Gavin swore he had smushed the damn thing. And, despite the fact that the tape didn’t have a label, Gavin still felt an odd sense of curiosity about what might be on the thing.

Gavin shrugged, getting back up and placing the tape in his pocket.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I've got a [Tumblr](http://oceannanotoceania.tumblr.com/), sooo, feel free to drop me a prompt or something.


End file.
